Do you have an anti-beach baby? For a toddler with parents who love the beach, our one and a half year old hates the beach.
Last summer we took Annabelle to the beach three times. Bringing a baby to the beach can be both terrifying and exciting if you are not prepared. Each trip was very different.
The first trip she cried when we put her feet in the sand and water, the second trip she spent her day in a blow up pool under an umbrella, and the third trip she ate a handful of sand while playing in the ocean. I felt like we had accomplished something wonderful when she smiled at us with her sandy chin.
Fast forward one year later and she looks at us like this.
The Anti-Beach Baby
She is full of disgust, disappointment, and straight up annoyed. Girl wants no part of the “beasch.”
She cried crocodile tears while clawing at my face, resembling my cat when I tried to put him in the bathtub, and begged us to take her back to the pool. We thought it would get a little easier every day, bringing her down at different times and offering various toys.
Unfortunately, time did not affect her. One of our greatest discoveries is her fear for anything peculiar – seaweed, rocks, shells, and dirty trash to name a few. Annabelle can be quite the diva and the brown seaweed in the white sand sent her in a tizzy.
We are hoping our trip to Cape Cod in a few weeks is not as traumatic. There is no pool at our cottage, so our water baby will have to suck it up and get her feet wet. We’ll bring a blow up kiddie pool, tons of toys, and her own little beach chair.
She has water shoes, an umbrella, a cabana, and about 12 family members who will line up, waiting to entertain her. But who can ever really predict the behavior of a toddler?
TAKE ME BACK TO THE POOL! NOW!
Suggestions are greatly appreciated.
We live less than 5 minutes from the beach and have only been twice this year because of the whole HOLY CRAP A TODDLER ON THE BEACH thing. The first time we went, some friends had their 2 kids down there and had taken their water table and set it up under the umbrella. The last time we went (the 4th of July) we took lots of snacks. We were down there during his normal nap time, but with all the snacking he was doing, he was a rock star. And he only ate sand once, lol.